Workmen's advocate. (New Haven, Conn.) 1883-1891, 1887-12-31

1892, when the latter acquired un-
divided, supreme power They could
act pretty much as they pleased, and
were not very favorably disposed to-
ward the working-cass as the new
poor-law showed but when a real
nobleman, Lord Shaitesbury, intro
duced his Factory Bills, though the
plutocrats, with the Quaker John
Bright at their head, for long time
fought successfully agair st them,
yet they had at last to give in, had
10 MWart their OWR most cherished
ideals, and pass them, as well as the
laws against overlooking of ships.
Here our splendid Bureaus for
the Statistic Of Labor, with which
no other country has anything tc
compare, constitute a giant step to-
ward the future organization of
labor.
AS to the British Rol7Way System,
it is noteworthy that Sir Bernhard
Samuelson, in a recent report of his
to the Association of Chambers of
Commerce of the United Kingdom
concludes IN tarOr Of State monopoly
of the railway traffic.
And our Interstate Commerce .Ict
of 1887 goes long way toward ac-
tually bringing that about here in
the United States. | wonder if it
was by a mere oversight that steam
ships were not brought within the
control of the Union, as well as rail
roads.
The MpNicip0lizaiion Of Land-
that is to say, the compulsory sale of
land by landlords to municipalities
has been for some years a pet idea
with English Radicals, and will, IN
doubtedly, be one of the first mea-
sures to be passed as soon as Irish
home-rulc has been granted and,
when accomplished, it very likely
may be the greatest step, so far
taken, in social evolution. But |
also hope, to be sure, that by that
time the private experiments in CO.
operative farming, which has been
spoken of, will have attained such
importance, that, upon the munich
palization (or natlonalization) of the
land. it will be handed over to large
Jodies of agricultural laborers, to be
by them cultivated comparatively on
large scale.
have also called these activities
"unconscous y for, though "prac
tical" politicians are conscious
enough when they concern them
selves with the eXpediency of any of
such measures, yet they are abso-
lute.y ignorant, or at least careless,
of the fact with which Spencer also
never tires of reproducing them)
that, in every one of such measures
they pass, they are establishing
principles, - principles which, by
their irresistible momentum, are sure
to leod to ne'r types Of social organi-
zatiOn.
Now, it is not easy to perceive
that these activities tend very
strongly to more and more curtaH,
contract, abridge, the PROPRIETARY
sphere of Mdiriduals, and decelop
a'M strengthen the COLLECTIVE
WILL? Certainly they do; and that
is what Spencer, in his pamphlet
The Man rs. THE ,State, so much be-
walls. But that is just what, as we
saw in Chap. L., has been the con-
stunt tendency of our civilization;
that in which our civilization may
be said to consist. AT first a given
individual was exceedingly powerful,
comparatively almighty; by and by
that power has been ia ken from him
and devolved on the State. What,
however, is most important and sug-
gestive is, that this tendency should
manifest itself so strongly and de-
cidedly nor, in the transition era in
which we are living, when perma-
nent new social order is upon us.